What they unjustly possessed themselves of after the Peace of Utrecht, they now pretend they have a Right to hold by Virtue of the Treaty of Aix le Chapelle until the true boundary between the English and the French be settled by Commissarys, but their Conquest made during the War they have been obliged to restore.

That the French Affairs relative to this Continent, are under the Direction and constantly Regarded by the Crown and Ministry, who are not insensible how great a Stride they would make towards an universal Monarchy if the British Colonies were added to their Dominions, and consequently the whole Trade of North America engrossed by them

That the said Colonies being in a divided disunited State there has never been any joint Exertion of their Force or Counsels to Repel or defeat the Measures of the French, and particular Colonies are unable and unwilling to maintain the cause of the whole. That there has been a very great Neglect of the Affairs of the Iroquois, or as they are commonly called the Indians of the Six Nations, and their Friendship and Alliance has been improved to private purposes, for the sake of the trade vdth them and the purchase or Acquisition of their Lands, more than to the public Service.

That they are Supplied with Rum by the Traders in vast and VOL. II. 39

610> MAKUSCRIPTS OF

almost Incredible Quantities, the Laws of the Colonies now in force being insufficient to restrain the Supply, and the Indians of I'very Nation are frequently Drunk and abused in their Trade, and their Affections thereby alienated from the English ; They often wound and iVIurder one another in their Liquor, and to avoid Revenge flee to the French, and perhaps more have been lost by these means than by the French Artifices.